With Nokia’s second quarter results out of the way and little significant progress expected by the next quarter, the focus once again shifts to just when will the company ship its first Windows-based device.

Chief Executive Stephen Elop on Thursday repeated that he expects the first such device to ship in the fourth quarter this year, with multiple launches to follow in 2012, while noting “clear signals” of support for its Windows Phone strategy.

In the meantime, though, there’s no compelling reason for investors to buy into Nokia in what industry expert Geoff Blaber, at research firm CCS Insight, calls a “sustained absence of new smartphones.”

Indeed, to stand any chance of getting its competitive edge back against Apple and Samsung, and all the vendors cranking out swanky new Android phones, one new Windows Phone in the top-end price segment isn’t going to cut it.